Wednesday, November 04, 2009

The New York Yankees are nine innings away from winning the World Series. If everything goes according to the Yanks’ plan on Wednesday night, Mariano Rivera will take the mound for the final handful of outs, leading the team to its first championship since 2000 and further cementing his reputation as the greatest closer in baseball history.

Rivera will have an unlikely fan pulling for him, one who’s become a pop superstar with a record-breaking four #1 singles off her debut album but who continues to see something of herself in the future Hall of Famer: Lady Gaga. She’s a lifelong fan whose family bleeds Yankee pinstripes. As she told MTV News, Gaga believes her approach to pumping out hit song after hit song and outrageous performance after outrageous performance is not unlike Rivera’s approach to closing out a tight game.

“I’ve actually been making a lot of Yankee analogies in my interviews lately because I get asked, ‘Do you feel pressure? How do you feel when someone says this? Or do you feel like you have to top yourself?’ ” she explained. “I say I do feel like I have to top myself. But I feel like I’m Rivera. I’m a closer.”

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I had vaguely heard this person's name and knew she was a singer of some sort, but nothing else, when she was on SNL a few weeks ago. The first song was forgettably bad. The second was one of the five worst live music performances I have witnessed. Mickey Avalon (before he was 'big', he opened a Rakim/Ghostface dayshow at South By) will always be #1, and somewhere in there is the band at South by '08 which was an off-rhythm drummer, a bad guitarist, and an old black man who yelled at the top of his lungs for vocals while slowly taking off clothes. In Austin you have to put up with terrible bands playing everywhere, you get inured to hearing atrocities of music at the bookstore, or a family restaurant, or out front of the mall. That #### was remarkably abysmal.

The rumors are that Lady Gaga's a hermaphrodite. I don't know that I've ever heard anything by her, just seen pictures of her with clothes on. She seems good at the whole self-promotion thing, kinda like Pink was way back when.

She seems good at the whole self-promotion thing, kinda like Pink was way back when.

She's stated in interviews that she sees herself in the mode of a new Andy Warhol (rather than a generic pop act), which basically requires her to be extremely good at the self promotion game.

While not at all a fan of her music, and completely agreeing with Jeff K's description of her SNL performances, I do appreciate her calculatedly outlandish weirdness. At least it makes her somewhat distinct from the remaining masses of pop princesses.

Mickey Avalon (before he was 'big', he opened a Rakim/Ghostface dayshow at South By) will always be #1, and somewhere in there is the band at South by '08 which was an off-rhythm drummer, a bad guitarist, and an old black man who yelled at the top of his lungs for vocals while slowly taking off clothes.

I was going to guess the latter refers to a Wesley Willis show, but that doesn't sound exactly right from the description. Who was this, Jeff K.?

"Just Dance" and "Poker Face" are pretty great club songs. They're not written to be enjoyed sitting at your computer.

EDIT: also agree strongly with DEoA in #24. Lady Gaga is a big performance that I continue to enjoy. I will also defend her songs as good dance-floor pop. nothing special, and not songs that succeed particularly outside of their intended context, but in that context, again, a lot of fun.

I looked up one of her songs on YouTube. It was awful. What am I missing here?

I don't even know her music that well, to be honest. She's audacious, is self-aware and has style for days, however outlandish. I'm not sure Pink is a good comparison. To me, Pink always seemed to confuse "style" and "rebellion" with "dying your hair weird colors" and "using words like '####' and '#####'" for shock value (because she's a woman! And it's not ladylike to say words like that! How "different!"). I wonder if early Madonna is a better comp. What does Repoz think?

She's audacious, is self-aware and has style for days, however outlandish.

Why the hell would I care if a musician, or if anyone for that matter, is audacious or self-aware? What am I, a psychologist? And if she has style for days, again, why do I give a ####? She's ugly.

I expect my musicians to be able to sing and dance, my actors to act, etc. All the #### you describe is secondary to their primary job, at which this Gaga fellow fails miserably. And I'm not opposed to club music on principle, I just think this particular music sucks.

Why the hell would I care if a musician, or if anyone for that matter, is audacious or self-aware? What am I, a psychologist? And if she has style for days, again, why do I give a ####? She's ugly.

Do people really form attachments this way? I guess there are a few ballplayers I loved without knowing much about who they were other than ballplayers (Dwight Evans, Dave Roberts), but for the most part I enjoy rooting for players much more and become a much bigger fan of them when there's something more than just baseball performance to latch onto. That's what makes Pedro so amazing - not only was he the greatest pitcher I ever saw, but he's constantly insightful and hilarious and weird.

That's what makes Pedro so amazing - not only was he the greatest pitcher I ever saw, but he's constantly insightful and hilarious and weird.

For a lot of us, there's a similar joy around Ichiro, both for the particular style of his play, and for his incredible collection of odd (and occasionally insane) quotes. While the style and quotes don't make him a better or more valuable player, they do make him a more entertaining player/personality.

Why the hell would I care if a musician, or if anyone for that matter, is audacious or self-aware? What am I, a psychologist?

Really? You don't think a musician's level of self-awareness has anything to do with their music? Subjective, sure, but if a band like Creed had more self-awareness, they wouldn't suck as much as they do.

And if she has style for days, again, why do I give a ####? She's ugly.

Disagree but again, subjective.

All the #### you describe is secondary to their primary job,

Well, yeah. I did say that I don't know her music that well so I'm only qualified to speak on the secondary aspects of their primary job. She's always getting attention and she's always in the news these days so as it's been said upthread, she's very good at self-promotion. And she seems to have a very clear idea of exactly what she's doing, which is why I like her.

Do people really form attachments this way? I guess there are a few ballplayers I loved without knowing much about who they were other than ballplayers (Dwight Evans, Dave Roberts), but for the most part I enjoy rooting for players much more and become a much bigger fan of them when there's something more than just baseball performance to latch onto. That's what makes Pedro so amazing - not only was he the greatest pitcher I ever saw, but he's constantly insightful and hilarious and weird.

That seems very Bill Simmons-onian to me. I never felt that way- I appreciate a ballplayer for what he does, which is to play baseball. When I want humor or comedy, I watch a comedian.

Pedro is one of my favorite players too, but that's because I love changeups and I love pitchers who can adjust to losing their stuff. I don't like Randy Johnson, but not because he's an ogre- because I always thought his pitching style was sort of crude (2 pitches, both hard)

Is it that crazy to appreciate baseball players for what they do better than everyone else, which is to play baseball? I'm not going out on a date with them or going bowling or whatnot.

No, that's not right. I'm a fan of non-star players who do something baseball-related that I like. I always admired R.A. Dickey and his crazy-ass pitches. I like Johnny Damon because of his crazy swing and the way he can make contact with anything...

...but I don't see baseball, or music, as soap opera. It's the player-as-player I root for, not player-as-character.

I was going to guess the latter refers to a Wesley Willis show, but that doesn't sound exactly right from the description. Who was this, Jeff K.?

Oh, I have zero idea. We just started our day of free day shows (Thursday's list in '08 wasn't hot, so we did Friday) at Spiderhouse, a coffee shop near campus. They serve booze now, so we had two beers sitting out back, and there was a band there. Official SXSW day show, the band was from like Milwaukee or something, but I didn't catch the name. We were 2 of 5 people in the audience.

I found, obviously, some visual evidence of her on GIS. Those pictures are all over the map in every way imaginable, so I withhold judgment on both hotness and potential transvestism/genital conundrums. I did discover that there is apparently a website called oops-sextape.com. So there's that.

e.g. Madonna gets tons of praise by some people for her business sense, image manipulation etc. and I don't understand. That doesn't make the music any better. The fact that she changes identities every 3 years doesnt jump out of the speakers when I'm listening to the music.

Lady GaGa covered the Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush duet "Don't Give Up" with The Midway State. She's not Kate, of course, but she did a pretty good job on it, and made the comment that it was "something that young people would hear and learn something about Kate Bush."

So if she loves Kate Bush, and wants to introduce her music to others, she's alright with me...

e.g. Madonna gets tons of praise by some people for her business sense, image manipulation etc. and I don't understand. That doesn't make the music any better. The fact that she changes identities every 3 years doesnt jump out of the speakers when I'm listening to the music.

Are you kidding? Madonna is still getting played as club music. Michael Jackson, too.

"Just Dance" will easily stay in the club music rotation for four or five years. Say what you like about it as music, but it's really, really danceable.

if you're into a combination between hip-hop and 80s influenced dance music, lady gaga's album is great. it's being reissued with some new tracks, which is the 3rd version of her debut album (regular u.s. issue, the "deluxe" edition which has some good extra songs, and this new reissue).

she also did some singing on the pet shop boys award ceremony in the u.k. (along with the killers' lead singer, b. flowers).

really good at the self-promotion. also very good about covering up her face.